What is The Hartford Project?
The Hartford Project (THP) is an urban ministry bringing together Christian groups and organizations, to partner them with Kingdom-serving organizations in Hartford to further their work. During those times of partnerships, participants are challenged to seek God in their lives to discover and grow in their purposes for His Kingdom.
We offer opportunities to do this in our Summer Outreaches and Serve Saturdays as the primary vehicles, and throughout the year we invest in students and leaders who want to a deeper investment of serve-lifestyle in our Discipleship Programs, currently comprising of The Bridge and Youth Advisory Board.
Our Summer Outreaches are made for church youth groups are invited to come and live in Hartford, CT for five days in the summer. During this week they will serve the community, learn about poverty, experience racial reconciliation, and build relationships with the wider body of Christ. You can view our list of Participant Churches.
The Hartford Project is comprised of three main components: Service, Discipleship, and Life in the City.
We offer opportunities to do this in our Summer Outreaches and Serve Saturdays as the primary vehicles, and throughout the year we invest in students and leaders who want to a deeper investment of serve-lifestyle in our Discipleship Programs, currently comprising of The Bridge and Youth Advisory Board.
Our Summer Outreaches are made for church youth groups are invited to come and live in Hartford, CT for five days in the summer. During this week they will serve the community, learn about poverty, experience racial reconciliation, and build relationships with the wider body of Christ. You can view our list of Participant Churches.
The Hartford Project is comprised of three main components: Service, Discipleship, and Life in the City.
Service
We believe that many of the Biblical concepts we teach our youth are best learned in the context of service. Another core value of The Hartford Project is Unity. In order to work towards this value, each Worksite Team is comprised of 12 - 14 participants from two different churches. Each Worksite Team will be assigned one or two different Worksites to visit each day (Mon - Wed). You can see the variety of service opportunities available by viewing our list of Worksite Partners. Each team will also be assigned to work a station (such as food, prayer, or face paint) at one of the Love Wins block parties, that we co-host with our partner churches.
Discipleship
Each year, our discipleship team develops a theme for THP's outreach weeks. This theme is carried out through our Morning Devotionals and Morning & Evening General Meetings. Churches are also given time throughout the week to meet together - during this time leaders are encouraged to use the time however they desire, in an effort to best meet the needs of their students. Some churches devote the majority of this time to prayer, others share about the different worksites they've visited throughout the day, and still others reflect on how God met them during the worship services. We believe that discipleship is best learned in the context of service, and that spending the week learning about and living out the commandments to love God and one another provides an environment in which students can grow in relationships with God, their youth leaders, and other students.
Life in the city
We first introduced the Life in the City component in 2011, when we began to notice that THP participants were spending the majority of their time in some of the city's neediest areas and thus perpetuating a negative stereotype of Hartford among participants. Since its start in 2011, Life in the City has grown to also engage important topics of social injustice and racial reconciliation. The goals of the Life in the City track are to (1) show our participants the benefits of urban living, (2) open participants' eyes to see Hartford as a vibrant community where they might choose to live, and (3) provide meaningful ways for participants to engage topics of social injustice. These goals are realized in a variety of activities including Home Dinners, Restaurant Dinners, Life in the City Simulations, and Prayer Walks.